The Brookhaven leader., 1887-05-12
You look At the book: ityabaa book

Alas, there are always those abroad
who would like TO loan your son or daugh.
ter bad book. Everywhere everywhere
an uncleaR literature. l charge upon il
the destruction OF 10000 immortal souls,
and bid you this morning wake up to
| the magnitude of the theme. I shall take
all the worlds literature-sood novel and
bad, travels, true and false, histories,
faithful and incorrect, legends, beautiful
and monstreus, all tracts, all chronicles,
all epilogues, all family, city,
/ State and National librarlcs-and pile
| them up in pyramid of literature, and
| then I shall bring to bear upon it some
! grand, glorious, infalhble. unmistals able
Christian principles. God help me to
| speak with reference 20 my last account,
and God help you to listen.
charge you, in the first rlac6, to stand
alooI from all books that give false pict.
ures OF human life. Life is neither a
tragedy nor farce. Men ore not all
either knaveS nor heroes Women are
neither angels nor furies And vet il
You depended upon much Of the litrraturc
OF the day, you would 81. The idea that
life, instead of b~tug something earnest,
something practical, is fitful and fan
tastic and CXtravaCant thing Now poor
| ly prepared are that vCuS Q man and wom-
an for the duties OF today who spent last
| night waiting through brilliant passages
descriptive of magnificent krHvtry and
wickednessl The mar iii be looking all
day long for his heroine, in the tin shop,
by the forge, in the factory, in the count
ing-room, and he will not find her, and he
will be dissatisfied. A man who gives
himself up to the indiscrimiuatr reading
of novels Will be nerve less, insane, and d
n L., l., - Al.
store, nor the shop, nor the field.
woman who gives herself up to the
indis criminate reading of novels will be
untitled for the duties of wife, mother.
sister, daughter. There she is, hair dis
heveled, countenance vacant, chcck ks pale.
hands trembling, bursting into tears at
midnight over the fate of acme I'M
fortunate lover; IN the day time, when
she ought TO BE- busy, staring by the half
hour at nothing; biting her finger nails
INTO the quick. The carpet that was plain
before VIII be palmer after having wan
dered through rom NEE a | night long
IN tesSelatCd halls Of castles
And your industrious companion
Will be moro uuattractive than
ever now that you have walked
in the romance through parks with pluu,ct
princesscs, or loung'd in the arbor
with the polished desperate. O. these
confirmed navel readers. They are un-
fitted fer this life, which is tremendous
discipline. They know not how to 90
through the furnaces of trial through
which they must pass, and they are TN
fitted for world whore every thing we
gain we achieve by hard. rng-coutinuing
and exhaustive WORK
Again, abstain from all those books
which, while they have some good things
ABOUT lhCm, have also IN admiXure of
evil You have read books that had two
clements in thcm-the good and the bad.
Which stuck to you' The bad! The heart
OF must people IS like a sieve, which let's
the small particles of gold fall through,
but keeps the great cnders. Once in
awhile there is a mind like loadstone,
which, plunged amid steel and brass fiji
ings, gathers up the steel and repcls tho
brass. But it is generally just tho oppo.
site, If you attempt to plunge through a
fence of burrs to get one blackberry, you
will get more burrs than blarkbarries.
You can not afford TO rea a bad book
however goodsyou are. You say:
"Thc influence is insignificant"
tell You that the scratch of pin has
sometimes produced the lock- jaw. Alas,
II through curiosity, as many do, you pry
into an evil book, your curiosity is as dan.
gerOus as that Of the man who would take
torch into guupowdor mill merely to
see whether it would blow up or not
In lnenagerie in NV York, a man put
his arm through the bars of a black
leopard cage. The animals hide looked
so sleek, and bright and beautiful. He
just stroked it onc'. The monster sc!za
him. and ne drew forth ii hand, torn and
mangled, and bleeding. O, touch not cvi |
even with the faintest stroke Though it
may be glossy and beautiful, touch it not i,
lest you pull forth your soul-t torn and
bleeding un Ter the clutch of the black
leopard.
"But,' You saw, chow can find out
whether book is good or bad without
reading it?n
There is always something suspicious
about bad book. l never knew an ex-
ception-sOmething suspicious in the in
dex or style of illustration. This venom
Gus reptile always carries a warning
rattle.
Again, l charge you to stand off from all
those books which corrupt the magma
ton and infama the passions. | do not
refer now to that kind of book which
the villain has under his coat waiting for
the school to get out, and then, looking
both ways to see that there is no police
man around the block, offers the book to
your son on his way home ! DO not speak
of That kind of literature, bat that which
evadcs the law and comes out in polished
style and with acute plot sounds the tOcsin
that rOuses up all the baser pa SsiQns of the
soul. To-day, under the nostrils of this
land, there is fetd, rcek ing, unwashe 1
literature, enough to poison | the fOunt-
aims of public virtue, aud smite your sons
and daughters as with the wing of de-
| strOying angel, and it is time that the
| ministers of the Gospel blew tho trumpet
and rallied the forces Of righteousness,
all armed to the teeth in this great battle
| against depravcd literature
| Again, abstain from those books which
are apologize of cr.m2. 1t is sad thin g
| that some of the best and most beautiful
| book blnderies, and some of the finest
rhetoric, have been brought to make sin
attractive. Vice il horrible thing, any
| how. 1t is born in shame, and dies howl
| ing in the darkness. In this world it is
| scourged with a whip of scorpions, but
afterward the thunlcrs of Gods wrath
! pursue it across q bUundless desert, beat.
| ing it with rum ana woe. When YOU come
to paint carnality, do not paint it as look.
| ing from behind embroidered curtains,
| through lattice of royal seragilO, but as
| writhing IN the agonics OF a city hosp. tai
Cursed be the books that try to make
| impurity decent, and criInc attractive,
| and hypocrisy noble! Cur be the book
| that swarm with libertiHes and dcspcra
does, who MAKE the brain Oh IN young
| people whirl with vI,lainy y" authors
who write them, " Publishers whC